Kitchen Garden Forum

Has anybody tried growing mixed salad leaves indoors (as opposed to in a greenhouse) during winter months?
I've accumulated a large number of deep plastic punnets and wondered whether, if I filled them with compost and sowed mixed salad leaves and put them on a bay windowsill in our lounge, I'd get a reasonable crop of leaves. I know low winter light levels might be a problem but wonder if a warm room would compensate for this.

To microgreens size only. When I tried for longer they just tended to stretch for the light and go leggy. I have a very light kitchen windowsill. The warmth didn't seem to affect them, the lack of light definitely did. The mixed leaves outside in my mini plastic greenhouse always do better.

Having now experimented with sowing some salad leaves on my kitchen windowsill a fortnight before Christmas, I can definitely say that I won't be bothering again. Despite the warmth of the kitchen, the lack of light has produced the most pathetic weedy specimens I've ever seen. I've wasted a packet of seeds in the process, but it has now taught me to that you can't defeat nature and that I should curb my impatience and wait for the right growing conditions.

It might have been too warm for them. I grow some in my unheated tunnels and they do reasonably well, despite the reduced light.

I once had some pot plants growing under a grow light in a dark corner of the house v. successfully. The illegal canabis growers seem to do quite well also !! May not be too economic though.

I have grown water cress quite successfully outdoors both in a frame or against the sheltered house wall during the winter months. I simply potted up the bigger sprigs from a poly packet of supermarket stuff into peat type compost and kept them well watered.
The other alternative is to grow those different sorts of sprouting seeds that are sold for windowsill growing. There seem to be quite a lot of different types not just the good old mustard and cress.

John

Haven't been on the boards for a while but I recently bought the magazine (March issue) and am now bursting with ideas for the veg plot ... just go to wait for the snow to go

Anyway, I have successfully grown basil leaves on a windowsill for over 6 months now and I regularly use the basil in cooking. I have been thinking about trying to grow lambs lettuce inside as it is one of my favourites.